Soil body needs better evidence of GM benefits to change its stance

Dr Eleanor Logan said the Soil Association would need far more evidence on GM benefits before it changed its opposition to gene-splicing technology. She said she could not see that happening.

Speaking in Edinburgh, Dr Logan said this country could feed itself and the need for GM crops was not proven. She then suggested that a better use of existing resources would cope with any increased demand for food.

She received support for her position from Dr Tom McMillan, the director of the Food Ethics Council, who also dismissed claims made this week by Dr David King, a former chief scientific adviser to the UK government, when he argued that millions had died because of a reluctance to embrace GM technology.

Dr McMillan said the root of the problem was that much of the funding for research work around the world was based on patent rights and economic competitiveness, and not on a wider range of objectives such as food affordability. To deal with hunger on a world scale, it was necessary to provide small-scale, local answers, she said.

Earlier Dr Logan indicated her support for the campaign to reduce the amount of meat and dairy products that people consumed. This would help combat climate change, by reducing the volume of methane emissions from cattle and sheep.

"If we are to meet our environmental targets, then we will have to eat less meat," she stated.

She emphasised that she supported traditionally largely grass-fed production methods, saying this was something that suited Scotland and could provide environmental benefits.

The pasture would help in the sequestration of soil carbon and this would help offset methane emissions, as well as producing better-quality meat and supporting the farming infrastructure.

She was also supportive of Scotland exporting beef, although her preference was very much in favour of local food markets.

Both speakers had earlier attended a meeting of campaigning and lobby groups who want to see a co-ordinated approach taken to dealing with all the issues surrounding food production.

They hoped the Scottish Government, with its "joined-up" approach, would help drive through changes that linked diverse issues such as diet, education, food production and the environment.

Changes to any one of these had consequential effects on the others, Dr McMillan said. He believed policymakers had more power to deal with issues than they possibly thought, and urged them to take up the challenge.